Bone Silence

By Alastair Reynolds

And so we reach the final part of the trilogy that began with Revenger and continued with Shadow Captain.

I’ll try to keep spoilers for this book to a minimum but obviously may reveal things about the previous two novels, so be forewarned.

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Having inadvertently caused a major financial crisis across the congregation the Ness sisters, Fura and Adrana, along with their mismatched crew, find themselves and their former pirate ship still hunted by a fleet of ships now led by an implacable enemy more ruthless than either of the sisters. Now they must not only evade capture, but also try and solve the twin mysteries that have intrigued them both. What is the true purpose of the Quoins, the curious currency in use across the thousands of worlds of the Congregation, and what force is it that restarts humanity after each Congregation falls into anarchy (humans are now in their 13^th).

As the sisters become separated each must face off against nefarious foes, but if they’re lucky, not only will they survive, they might just discover answers to those questions, answers that may change the nature of the Congregation, of all future Congregations, forever.

Well after each of the previous books was told from the POV of one of the sisters, here Reynolds eschews the first person for a third person view that broadens the scope of the story, and its no surprise that this is the meatiest novel of the three.

I’ve really enjoyed the trilogy, and whilst Reynolds says in his afterward that this is the last we’ll see of the Ness sisters for a while, he also acknowledges that they might force his hand and shoehorn their way back into his thinking. I really hope they do, because while questions are answered, you feel there’s still a long way for the Ness sisters, and the Congregation to go, and having created such a vibrant far future world of pirates and privateers, it’d be a real shame if he doesn’t return to it because there’s still so much untapped potential.

As always Reynolds’ prose is superb, and I found myself caught by a horrible dilemma. On the one hand I could barely the put the book down—page turner doesn’t do it justice—but by the same token I really didn’t want it to end.

The Ness sisters are great creations, but the real star of the story is the world Reynolds created, a radically altered solar system tens of thousands of years hence, yet analogous with the 18^th Century high seas, with the planets long since broken up to form thousands of tiny worlds, some planetoids, some huge space stations. Suffice to say from the grandest element to the absolute minutiae Reynolds’ worldbuilding is as superb as ever.

It isn’t perfect. Many of the supporting characters do blend into one another, the villain deserved more screen time, and the ending feels a little rushed, but these are minor gripes. A fab end to a fab trilogy. I only hope it doesn’t remain a trilogy for long!